Being a member of the RH Team inspired me to focus on learning more in the field of technology. This committee initially met bi-monthly after-school to investigate different pieces of technology. The team would try out different softwares, focusing on freeware that could enhance student learning but also support a lower budget of a non-profit school. We would discuss ways to improve the integration of technology into daily lessons. The school was slowly eliminating the use of a technology teacher and encouraging teachers to take the reigns for both the teaching and implementation of technology in their own instruction. A role of the RH Team was to help teachers with the transition and to provide assistance when available. I frequently received emails or even calls while teaching from a teacher who needed assistance with the Smartboard or their new Mac laptop. This past year we began hosting RH meetings on-line, collaborating through a wiki set up by our technology director.
1. Technology Curriculum
The school had never had a technology curriculum. The RH Team took on the responsibility of writing and finalizing technology benchmarks for the school. We researched current technology plans in other independent school. We examined standards from the National Association of Independent School (NAIS ) and the Independent School Association of the Central States (ISACS ) along with the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) national eduational standards of technology (NETS ) for teachers and students. We utilized pieces from each of the set of standards, revising as necessary to meet our school's mission. We met with teachers in each grade level to discuss how and when they utilized technology. The committee created a series of benchmarks, investigating when and how a standard was covered in the various grades in order to identify and eliminate any gaps.
Here is an excerpt from the CCDS Technology Curriculum:
REFLECTION
Creating a set of benchmarks was definitely important to the future success of our private school in a struggling economy. The teachers became more aware of whether or not they were utilizing any technology in the classroom. The awareness of technology encouraged some teachers to branch out and learn about technologies available online or that the school already owned, including myself. The identification of gaps in technology in various grade levels compared to the expectations of the technology curriculum helped the RH Team realize that professional development was needed by many veteran and even novice teachers in the building. One professional development idea occurred through the Moodle investigations discussed below.
Learning the different technology standards helped me improve my own teaching as well. Technology was almost nonexIstent at my first school. Though I enjoyed technology, I was not searching it out on my own. As we wrote the benchmarks, I became interested in learning new ways to teach through the use of technology. I wanted to improve my own abilities to successfully differentiate in my classroom, which I have and continue to work on. The school has made a shift in the right direction as we work to provide 21st century learning experiences to our students.
This was my first experience writing curriculum, and I learned a lot through the research and discussions. The technology director is already revising the curriculum, as the possibilities and needs change every day with endless emerging technologies. This makes writing a definitive curriculum challenging, and I learned it is important to review my lessons yearly to make sure the needs of students are being met.
2. Moodle Explorations The RH Team assisted the technology director in examining Moodle as a possible tool to teach students, communicate with parents, and provide professional development to teachers in the building. He first set up short sample classes for us to investigate. We took assessments, and examined the courses from the perspective of the teacher, student, and parent. Following our investigations we held discussions in the RH Wiki. The technology director developed professional development pieces for the teachers and the RH Team utilized these courses and provided feedback. His goal was to make the courses user-friendly for teachers who found technology intimidating. He has since moved these lessons from Moodle to our school Wiki, shown in the picture below. I further examined Moodle last summer during graduate studies, opting to use this resource to create a web-based learning system (WBLS). Following the creation and student usage of my WBSL, I shared both frustrations and advantages I encountered while using the system with my technology director.
Below are several artifacts of my explorations in Moodle:
REFLECTION
My explorations in Moodle gave me a better understanding on how learning systems are organized, and huge insight into what goes into the design of an online interaction or course. I had experimented with a private wiki used at my school but found Moodle offered more options common to learning managements systems. I learned that a ton of work goes into creating a course on-line, but the time put in could lead to great outcomes.
The courses set up by our technology director gave me additional insight into how Moodle can be utilized. I think it is a great tool for teachers not just students. Creating a series of professional development in the site would provide teachers with an example of how Moodle could be used and they could begin to familiarize themselves with the layout prior to using it. This year Moodle will be fully integrated into the middle school.
3. Teacher Webpage and Newsletter
Another project explored in the RH Team meetings was creating a teacher webpage, and eventually a teacher newsletter template accessible on the webpage. The team met on multiple occasions to discuss pieces that would make a teacher webpage a successful communication tool for our current parents and students, and ideally as a marketing tool for prospective families.
The initial layout of the teacher's webpage allowed sharing of photos, access to uploaded files, and suggested supporting links. The core of the webpage was updated weekly to act as a newsletter of academics and events ongoing in each classroom. The actual design of the webpage was outsourced. The teachers had full responsibility of updating photos, posting files and links, and keeping the newsletter section current. The RH Team members, including myself, provided continuos support throughout the year on how to mange the webpage features.
The following year, the RH Team met to design a newsletter template. We investigated different styles of newsletters in schools in our community and the independent school system. A template was devised to include topics the team and the administration felt necessary to meet the communication goals of the newsletters. The core of the webpage became a place for a standard introduction of the teacher and a new feature was added to upload newsletters. Each week the newsletter could be inserted and later archived on the page.
REFLECTION
The first year, the team realized that the newsletter portion of the page needed altered. Since the teachers were changing the core of the webpage weekly, there was no record of what had been written the week before for parents or students to refer back to. This led to the team's creation of a newsletter template and the method of archiving the newsletters for the year on each teacher's page. This solution worked well to solve this problem. Students can now go back at any time and find due dates in previous newsletters. Teachers can also use the newsletters to support the communications provided on an assignment or long-term project. If a parent or student shares they never knew a project existed, the newsletter is an excellent resource to support the teacher had communicated possibly for several weeks about due dates and expectations.
One of the biggest challenges the team met in implementing the teacher webpages and newsletter was resistance from many teachers. The teachers felt the maintenance of the page was more work, expressing they already had their own communication system in place. The administration worked with the RH Team to communicate the purpose of the new system. First of all, online newsletters would save the school money with the removal of paper usage and printing costs. Secondly, one of the goals the RH Team had been given was to create a method of communication for all teachers that would eventually become familiar to the parents. The administration wanted us to create something that parents could expect to see as they children moved up year to year.
The idea behind the webpage and newsletter was valid. There have been ongoing adjustments to best meet the needs of the teachers and various audiences. Discussions for improvements continue in the RH Team. Currently we are discussing how to organize the newsletters of a grade level, including all academic and art teachers, in a central location for parent and student viewing. The new complaint from parents is no longer a lack of communication, but rather an overload of it. Some students have five or six teacher newsletters to read weekly. We are currently investigating a way to provide quick access to the visual art teachers through the classroom teacher's webpage.
Being a member of the RH Team inspired me to focus on learning more in the field of technology. This committee initially met bi-monthly after-school to investigate different pieces of technology. The team would try out different softwares, focusing on freeware that could enhance student learning but also support a lower budget of a non-profit school. We would discuss ways to improve the integration of technology into daily lessons. The school was slowly eliminating the use of a technology teacher and encouraging teachers to take the reigns for both the teaching and implementation of technology in their own instruction. A role of the RH Team was to help teachers with the transition and to provide assistance when available. I frequently received emails or even calls while teaching from a teacher who needed assistance with the Smartboard or their new Mac laptop. This past year we began hosting RH meetings on-line, collaborating through a wiki set up by our technology director.
1. Technology Curriculum
The school had never had a technology curriculum. The RH Team took on the responsibility of writing and finalizing technology benchmarks for the school. We researched current technology plans in other independent school. We examined standards from the National Association of Independent School (NAIS ) and the Independent School Association of the Central States (ISACS ) along with the International Society for Technology in Education's (ISTE) national eduational standards of technology (NETS ) for teachers and students. We utilized pieces from each of the set of standards, revising as necessary to meet our school's mission. We met with teachers in each grade level to discuss how and when they utilized technology. The committee created a series of benchmarks, investigating when and how a standard was covered in the various grades in order to identify and eliminate any gaps.
Here is an excerpt from the CCDS Technology Curriculum:
Attached is a full copy of the file:
REFLECTION
Creating a set of benchmarks was definitely important to the future success of our private school in a struggling economy. The teachers became more aware of whether or not they were utilizing any technology in the classroom. The awareness of technology encouraged some teachers to branch out and learn about technologies available online or that the school already owned, including myself. The identification of gaps in technology in various grade levels compared to the expectations of the technology curriculum helped the RH Team realize that professional development was needed by many veteran and even novice teachers in the building. One professional development idea occurred through the Moodle investigations discussed below.
Learning the different technology standards helped me improve my own teaching as well. Technology was almost nonexIstent at my first school. Though I enjoyed technology, I was not searching it out on my own. As we wrote the benchmarks, I became interested in learning new ways to teach through the use of technology. I wanted to improve my own abilities to successfully differentiate in my classroom, which I have and continue to work on. The school has made a shift in the right direction as we work to provide 21st century learning experiences to our students.
This was my first experience writing curriculum, and I learned a lot through the research and discussions. The technology director is already revising the curriculum, as the possibilities and needs change every day with endless emerging technologies. This makes writing a definitive curriculum challenging, and I learned it is important to review my lessons yearly to make sure the needs of students are being met.
2. Moodle Explorations
The RH Team assisted the technology director in examining Moodle as a possible tool to teach students, communicate with parents, and provide professional development to teachers in the building. He first set up short sample classes for us to investigate. We took assessments, and examined the courses from the perspective of the teacher, student, and parent. Following our investigations we held discussions in the RH Wiki. The technology director developed professional development pieces for the teachers and the RH Team utilized these courses and provided feedback. His goal was to make the courses user-friendly for teachers who found technology intimidating. He has since moved these lessons from Moodle to our school Wiki, shown in the picture below. I further examined Moodle last summer during graduate studies, opting to use this resource to create a web-based learning system (WBLS). Following the creation and student usage of my WBSL, I shared both frustrations and advantages I encountered while using the system with my technology director.
Below are several artifacts of my explorations in Moodle:
REFLECTION
My explorations in Moodle gave me a better understanding on how learning systems are organized, and huge insight into what goes into the design of an online interaction or course. I had experimented with a private wiki used at my school but found Moodle offered more options common to learning managements systems. I learned that a ton of work goes into creating a course on-line, but the time put in could lead to great outcomes.
The courses set up by our technology director gave me additional insight into how Moodle can be utilized. I think it is a great tool for teachers not just students. Creating a series of professional development in the site would provide teachers with an example of how Moodle could be used and they could begin to familiarize themselves with the layout prior to using it. This year Moodle will be fully integrated into the middle school.
3. Teacher Webpage and Newsletter
Another project explored in the RH Team meetings was creating a teacher webpage, and eventually a teacher newsletter template accessible on the webpage. The team met on multiple occasions to discuss pieces that would make a teacher webpage a successful communication tool for our current parents and students, and ideally as a marketing tool for prospective families.
The initial layout of the teacher's webpage allowed sharing of photos, access to uploaded files, and suggested supporting links. The core of the webpage was updated weekly to act as a newsletter of academics and events ongoing in each classroom. The actual design of the webpage was outsourced. The teachers had full responsibility of updating photos, posting files and links, and keeping the newsletter section current. The RH Team members, including myself, provided continuos support throughout the year on how to mange the webpage features.
The following year, the RH Team met to design a newsletter template. We investigated different styles of newsletters in schools in our community and the independent school system. A template was devised to include topics the team and the administration felt necessary to meet the communication goals of the newsletters. The core of the webpage became a place for a standard introduction of the teacher and a new feature was added to upload newsletters. Each week the newsletter could be inserted and later archived on the page.
REFLECTION
The first year, the team realized that the newsletter portion of the page needed altered. Since the teachers were changing the core of the webpage weekly, there was no record of what had been written the week before for parents or students to refer back to. This led to the team's creation of a newsletter template and the method of archiving the newsletters for the year on each teacher's page. This solution worked well to solve this problem. Students can now go back at any time and find due dates in previous newsletters. Teachers can also use the newsletters to support the communications provided on an assignment or long-term project. If a parent or student shares they never knew a project existed, the newsletter is an excellent resource to support the teacher had communicated possibly for several weeks about due dates and expectations.
One of the biggest challenges the team met in implementing the teacher webpages and newsletter was resistance from many teachers. The teachers felt the maintenance of the page was more work, expressing they already had their own communication system in place. The administration worked with the RH Team to communicate the purpose of the new system. First of all, online newsletters would save the school money with the removal of paper usage and printing costs. Secondly, one of the goals the RH Team had been given was to create a method of communication for all teachers that would eventually become familiar to the parents. The administration wanted us to create something that parents could expect to see as they children moved up year to year.
The idea behind the webpage and newsletter was valid. There have been ongoing adjustments to best meet the needs of the teachers and various audiences. Discussions for improvements continue in the RH Team. Currently we are discussing how to organize the newsletters of a grade level, including all academic and art teachers, in a central location for parent and student viewing. The new complaint from parents is no longer a lack of communication, but rather an overload of it. Some students have five or six teacher newsletters to read weekly. We are currently investigating a way to provide quick access to the visual art teachers through the classroom teacher's webpage.